Ida has died, Ida has been dug up.....

The WSJ tells us:

In what could prove to be a landmark discovery, a leading paleontologist said scientists have dug up the 47 million-year-old fossil of an ancient primate whose features suggest it could be the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes and humans.

To which I say:

Way cool.

All I ask is that

(1) Everyone take a deep breath.

(2) Remember that Ida answers the question of whether we are more closely related to tarsiers (tarsidae) or to lemurs (adapidae), and ONLY that. (Tarsiers, looks like.)

(3) Remember that they were the bones of Ida, not of Jesus of Nazareth; as far as I can tell, Ida's linkage to us and His having risen from the dead remain, er, independent variables.

(4) Remember that it does NOT mean that you may act like a monkey at the zoo when you go to a bar on Saturday night--at least, not without consequences (including the eternal ones).

(5) Be sure to give me a call if they dig up Jesus. Please. Do.

(A priest friend of mine tells me that when he was in seminary, some pompous professor said "If they found the bones of Christ my faith would be unaffected." To which a seminarian replied: "If they found the bones of Christ I'm going out to get laid." Pithy. But true.)